TZIRL (BERKOWICZ) STEINGART FOREVER IN MY MEMORY (Editor’s note: The writer is a correspondent for the Jew- ish Daily Forward.) Although I left Bialystok, my hometown, many years ago, 1 still remember it fondly. My family lived on a small street in a poor section of town — near the Great Synagogue. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a rich cultural life. My mother was a model of honesty and devotion. My Bundist education gave me a strong feeling for social justice and equality without regard to national origin, color or creed. I also remained devoted to the Jewish people, its language and culture. I never saw any contradiction in these views. On the contrary, one rein- forced the other. As a young girl, I left Bialystok for Paris — in January 1933. I soon became active in Jewish social and political causes. My main interest was teaching assimi- lated Jewish children Yiddish and the history of their people. I and others trained children in the Bundist youth organizations to be proud of their heritage and respect the brotherhood of all peoples. These efforts paid off during the Nazi occupation of France, when underground youth and resistance organi- zations were formed. Their dedication and combat readi- ness were the result of the Jewish consciousness they had developed in earlier years. I will always remember those tragic times, when we were in daily danger of arrest, torture, deportation, and execution. Despite this, my friends and I enjoyed disrupt- ing the Nazis’ diabolical plan to destroy the Jewish people. We often thought our nightmare would never end. Nobody believed we would survive to tell the world of our anguish. In Paris, Lyons, Grenoble and other French cities and towns, there are memorial plaques on many homes of fallen Jews who helped liberate France. So many Jewish names appear on the markers — youngsters who fought alongside their gentile brothers against the enemy. Under normal circumstances, most of us would have been incapable of hurting a fly. But the barbarity of the Gestapo and their French collaborators was so revolting that we became fighters overnight. Somehow we found the strength to carry on our illegal rescue and resistance activities. Even with false papers identifying one as a gentile it was hard to hide from the authorities and even harder to fulfill resistance missions. We never knew for sure who was a friend or an informer. Fortunately, there were decent gentiles who did not collaborate with the Nazis 158 and who helped hide Jewish children; some provided forged documents and weapons for resistance groups. I spent most of my time saving Jewish children, who were utterly helpless. Their parents breathed easier in their hideouts knowing their children were under our protection. We also printed illegal handbills and posted them in the streets. These signs gave moral support to Jews who were in hiding and called upon the French public to assist them. We proclaimed that the Nazis were lying in their radio and newspaper messages; they were inciting the French against innocent people. The real enemy was the Nazis, not the Jews. The French were duty bound to banish the Germans from their land. I was also involved in illegally distributing the Bundist paper, Unzer Stimme, and the Bundist youth paper in French, Le Reveilleur des Jeunes. We brought supplies to Jews in their hideouts and helped others flee French detention camps before they could be deported. We obtained arms for the resistance groups — not an easy task. And we instructed young people on how to take care of their weapons in the shelters and administer first aid in the event of enemy attack. My husband, Henry Steingart, was one of the leaders of the United Jewish Aid and various action committees, which were involved ina broad range of illegal activities. Represented among these groups were Bundists, Jewish communists, right-and left wing Labor Zionists and 1611 gious Jews. I shan’t forget these efforts and the daily terror under which they were carried out. I still recall those who, like myself, hoped they would survive until France would be liberated, but did not. It is as if the courageous uprising in Villeurbanne (a surburb of Lyons), where Jewish youth fought alongside their French counterparts against Ger- mans, took place yesterday. The Nazis were then, in August 1944, armed to the teeth; we lacked adequate weapons supplies. After several days of fighting, the Germans crushed the Villeurbanne uprising. Homes were gutted and many resisters were shot. Henry, who was one of the fighters, and some friends were missing for several days. I looked for them in the hospitals among the dead and wounded. Some days later, Henry and his colleagues returned to my hideout. The Germans had been after them and some French peasants had hidden them. During an attack on a hideout, where we conducted secret meetings of the illegal United Jewish Aid Com- mittee, six of us — representatives of various politi- cal persuasions — were arrested. I was the spokesperson The Bialystoker Memorial Book